Tips for finding your natural weight through ... mindfulness, visualisation and how to stop emotional eating a

The concept of “mindfulness” is central to hypnosis and mindfulness is gathering force as a highly effective psychological tool, both in popular culture and mainstream psychology. Imagery or visualisation is another mind tool used to help in your quest to achieve your target size for example. The way it works, the more you mentally rehearse seeing you as slim, the stronger the neural pathways are and the more success you have. As mindful eating is full of joy and peaceful enjoyment, there are no challenges to mindful eating. Whereas emotional eating is challenging.

The “I can change myself” mentality is prevalent and therefore most people are more receptive to change these days. Through mindfulness you can tap into this notion of an internal revolution: your own power and determination to recapture self-esteem by taking back the controls and eating healthily and ‘mindfully’. Eating when you are hungry and not responding to emotions.

Self hypnosis is a mind changing revolution and a more holistic and acceptable approach that involves general healthy lifestyle changes and is based on self-awareness and empowerment. Hypnosis is on-trend with its emphasis on building a lasting, healthy and sustainable control over life’s stresses and behaviours which causes overeating and yo-yo dieting. Diet mentality is a quick fix full of deprivation, denial, dread and it is frenetic .... whereas mindful eating is calm ... a lifestyle change and embraced.

There is increasing evidence that both men and women are mindfully paying far more attention to their ‘Body Mastery’ in how fit and healthy they are, coupled with concentrating on how they look. Research has shown that those who exercise regularly and eat healthily have higher levels of body satisfaction. Exercise and healthy, mindful eating are the key to a long life and to avoid serious health complications.

Take action - we all have ‘to do’ lists, .... don’t let being fit and healthy be at the bottom of yours. Don’t say ‘I will do it later,’ because you won’t. Don’t respond to your emotions with food, address them, look at them and you will discover you will soon break free from emotional eating.

Emotional hunger versus Physical hunger.

Common Causes of Emotional Eating

Boredom, Reward, Stressed, argument with loved ones or work colleagues, feeling deprived, anger, sadness, loneliness, anxiety, shame, childhood habits, needing love and comfort to name a few. You feel powerless to deal with your feelings head on, so you avoid them and use food as a comfort.

Identify your emotional triggers

The first step to stopping emotional eating is to identify your emotional triggers. What specific places, situations, people or feelings make you want to reach for the comfort of food. Emotional eating is often linked to eating because of unpleasant feelings, however it can be linked to and triggered by positive emotions such as rewarding yourself for a happy event.

NOTE: over eating now and again to celebrate weddings, eating out with friends, holidays etc isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We all overindulge now and again. But when eating is your primary emotional coping mechanism, in that food is used to make you feel better emotionally, rather than to fill your stomach, that is the danger of emotional eating. It triggers off days of over eating if not weeks.

Exercise ...

Being active increases your life span. and reduces chances of heart attacks and strokes. It also streamlines your body, posture is improved and you feel less hungry and more energetic and happier. Exercise can initially be a slow means of changing the body shape and size, so it is essential to have the mindset that you are enjoying getting fitter and healthier ... and achieving your desired size is a by-product of this. Then you won’t give up, if for example, you think that you’re not achieving your target size quickly enough. So, there are two purposes for exercising ... Improving your health and fitness ... and streamlining your body. Breathing correctly is always important and especially when exercising. The muscles in the body need oxygen to create energy. so take good deep breaths during exercise.

Follow a Healthy Diet ...

Healthy eating is one of the vital factors in living a longer, healthy life and finding your natural weight (along with regular exercise). All health experts are always driving this message home, but only one in three adults in the UK eat the recommended five a day portions of fruits and vegetables. Eat foods which contain Omega 3 on a daily basis. Omega 3 protects against heart disease. It is better to get this essential oil from food, but if you don’t like oily fish, take a supplement, but check with your doctor first, before taking any supplements. Lets face it ... how to lose weight is not rocket science. It’s no secret how to lose those inches and you have all the skills you need, in your mind. … Here are a few tips to mindful eating, to stop emotional eating, to find your natural weight and size.... and to lose those last few pounds.

Eat ‘mindfully’ so that you enjoy your food more, becoming more aware of what you put into your body, and therefore making healthier choices, such as salmon, herrings, fresh tuna, trout and sardines. Also eat avocados, beans. pulses, nuts and seeds. All in moderation. Fruit and Vegetables ... eat raw where possible and fresh. Lightly cooked for those who prefer cooked and choose dark and rich colours as they contain more nutrients, antioxidants, anti-carcinogenic. For example; broccoli, red and green peppers, spinach. Fruits, berries known as super-foods; cherries, blackberries, blueberries (sprinkled anywhere, on breakfast granola with yoghurt, in salads and stir fry’s ). NOTE: there is always an exception and bananas are one of those exceptions from the dark rich colour! ... they have an abundance of potassium and known as brain food, as they help with concentration and sharpness of mind.

Be mindful about what you are eating... really savour food ... concentrate on what you are eating and never eat quickly. otherwise you would miss out on the wonderful textures and flavours.

Be mindful about eating slowly and chew your food well and you will eat less - as your body will register more quickly that you have that ‘had enough feeling’.

How to stop emotional eating - keep a daily food and emotions journal: this will help you to unpick the emotional associations you have with food and to understand your ‘triggers’ – the feelings that make you eat when you’re not hungry. Then you will begin to replace the self-criticism with self-acceptance. Reduce (preferably avoid) saturated fats which include cakes, biscuits, pastries, crisps, butter, hard cheeses, ice cream and fatty meat.

Moderation and mindful healthy eating are the cornerstones of mindfulness, not deprivation and feast/famine behaviour. Mindfulness (hypnosis) teaches you the way to eat for life. It is liberating and you will never have to fear going out to dinner any more or beat yourself up for wanting some chocolate or a piece of cheese. No more raiding the biscuit tin or eating a whole tub of ice cream. No more guilt and deprivation. Think peace, calm, tranquility and healthy mind, healthy body.

Think Half – we live in a ‘super size’ culture where food is not only readily available on every corner and almost 24/7 – most of it fast and unhealthy and huge portions. Mindfulness teaches you to automatically be more ‘mindful’ of the portion sizes and making healthy choices.

Forget diets – they don’t work and the yo-yo dieting is harmful to the body, putting a strain on the heart and disrupting the metabolism, so that it becomes harder to lose weight each time. So no more guilt feelings about the food you eat. Above all, enjoy food. Just eat slowly and mindfully.

Exercise daily - exercise is an essential part of your daily life and not an optional extra. Improving your health and fitness ... and streamlining your body. Treat exercise as fun and not a chore, then it will be. Forget the ‘no pain, no gain.’ ... It is ridiculous ... as pain means injury.

Eat regularly - don’t skip breakfast, it’s a myth that will help you to lose weight. The body will go into starvation mode and store fat.

Water ... it is crucial to be mindful about drinking lots of water regularly ‘throughout the day and evening’, it helps to flush out toxins, avoid dehydration and is excellent for healthy looking skin, so that’s an incentive in itself.